This invention relates generally to sweetness modification and more particularly to certain acids of arylalkylketones, particularly well suited as sweetness inhibitors in edible foodstuffs.
Sweetness is one of the primary taste cravings of both animals and humans. Thus, the utilization of sweetening agents in foods at order to satisfy this sensory desire is well established.
Naturally occurring carbohydrate sweeteners, such as sucrose, are still the most widely used sweetening agents. While these naturally occurring carbohydrates, i.e. sugars, generally fulfill the requirements of sweet taste, the abundant usage thereof does not occur without deleterious consequences, e.g. high caloric input, and nutritional imbalance.
The use of sweetening agents in foods to provide functions other than sweetening, such as to act as fillers, bulking agents, antimicrobial agents, freezing point depressants, stabilizers, etc. is also well established. Many times, however, the amount of sweetening agent employed for these alternate functions provides an excessively sweet taste, thereby requiring a modification of the formulation to reduce the sweetener level with a concurrent reduction in providing the alternate function to the food product. One solution of the art, with very limited success, was to add bitter or acidic ingredients to the food to reduce the sweetness perception; however, the resultant food then had an undesirable bitter or acidic taste.
Accordingly, in view of the aforementioned disadvantages associated with the use of sweetners, e.g., naturally occurring, artificial or combinations thereof, it becomes readily apparent that it would be highly desirable to provide a sweetness inhibiting agent which when added to foodstuffs can greatly reduce the level of deleterious sweetener normally required and concomitantly eliminate or greatly diminish the diadvantages associated with sweeteners. Moreover, it would be highly desirable to provide sweetness inhibiting agents which do not result in off-tastes, and which when added to foodstuufs reduce the level of sweetness perceived without concurrent reduction in the desirable properties of the foodstuff.
Arylalkylketones and arylcycloalkylketones, such as 3-(4'-methoxybenzoyl)propionic acid, are known in the prior art to possess anorectic and/or cholinergic activity in experimental animals such as rats, when introduced to the animals orally in feeds or injected via solutions thereof. See, for example, C. R. Acad. Sc. Paris, T. 283 (Oct. 27, 1976), "Therapeutic Chemistry--Anorectic Activity Of Acids Of Arylcycloalkylketones on Rats," by Oralesi, H. et al. and Eur. J. Med. Chem-Chimica Therapeutica, May-June 1978, "Anorectic Activity Of Acids Of Arylalkylketones and Arylcycloalkylketones," by Oralesi, H. et al. These papers, however, neither disclose nor remotely suggest the sweetness inhibiting properties of the compounds as described and utilized according to the present invention.